I had to look it up. Apparently a fleece vest over a button-down shirt and chinos has become a corporate casual uniform of sorts on the east coast after it became popular in Silicon Valley. https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-the-fleece-vest-became-the-new-corporate-uniform-1532442297
The Wall Street types have always made a lot of money off of other people’s money, but it seems they used to do so a little less openly greedily, and less openly comfortably, at least walking around in suits, ties and stiff shoes, a kind of a Brooks Brothers hairshirt you had to be careful not to spill your lunch martini on.
Did they really have to appropriate the fleece vest as some kind of uniform? I suppose it was inevitable. Those things never were comfortable in any sense but the purest one: They really were, and are, physically comfortable. But back when they weren’t even fleece, when they were the puffy down Mae Wests of the 1970s, their comfort and practicality were offset by their funny looks and the harsh implication that you might be a John Denver fan. As the material moved to fleece, you had to resign your nature-boy self to the idea that you were wearing a cozy piece of plastic. And shortly after Patagonia soothed your soul that you were at least wearing cozy recycled garbage came the news that every time you laundered your repurposed beverage bottles you were releasing a tiny amount of harmful microplastics into the ecosystem. But the news that the fleece vest had become the new finance-sector bro-wear actually had me wearing my old fleece vest not just under a shell, but more or less in the privacy of my own home.
Okay, that was also driven by the fact that the outdoor industry had brought us Merino wool and that I could afford a certain amount of it, thanks largely to being old enough to have put a certain amount of my income in the hands of, if not Wall Street bros, local banks. And I’ve even started wearing my fleece vest again, because if I had originally started wearing vests because I didn’t care what other people thought about how I looked, I might as well finish up that way.
Why would happy individualist Frazz give a dead rat’s left buttock whether something he likes (I assume he likes his fleece vest) is identified with its appropriators (aw geeze, I’m talking DIY psychobabble.)
I used to, every few years or so, wear a suit and tie to work on Halloween. When wear a suit I always feel like it’s obvious I’m faking it. Reactions came in 3 types: 1) “What are you all dressed up for?” 2) “Is that your costume?” 3) (from the ones who got it): point and snurk.
smoore47 about 5 years ago
Showing a little bosom on Miss Plainwell. Cute.
cervelo about 5 years ago
Wall St. finance guys wear fleece vests… Who knew?
sandpiper about 5 years ago
a fleece vest on a wall street money monger? Bitterly ironic as well as truth in advertising.
jbarnes about 5 years ago
I had to look it up. Apparently a fleece vest over a button-down shirt and chinos has become a corporate casual uniform of sorts on the east coast after it became popular in Silicon Valley. https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-the-fleece-vest-became-the-new-corporate-uniform-1532442297
pwclapp about 5 years ago
BTW – they also wear a ton of Patagonia. Frazz is running a risk with that t-shirt.
KeepKeeper about 5 years ago
Red to sell, green to buy and yellow to hold
Night-Gaunt49[Bozo is Boffo] about 5 years ago
Blog PostsFrazz16 hrs ·
The Wall Street types have always made a lot of money off of other people’s money, but it seems they used to do so a little less openly greedily, and less openly comfortably, at least walking around in suits, ties and stiff shoes, a kind of a Brooks Brothers hairshirt you had to be careful not to spill your lunch martini on.
Did they really have to appropriate the fleece vest as some kind of uniform? I suppose it was inevitable. Those things never were comfortable in any sense but the purest one: They really were, and are, physically comfortable. But back when they weren’t even fleece, when they were the puffy down Mae Wests of the 1970s, their comfort and practicality were offset by their funny looks and the harsh implication that you might be a John Denver fan. As the material moved to fleece, you had to resign your nature-boy self to the idea that you were wearing a cozy piece of plastic. And shortly after Patagonia soothed your soul that you were at least wearing cozy recycled garbage came the news that every time you laundered your repurposed beverage bottles you were releasing a tiny amount of harmful microplastics into the ecosystem. But the news that the fleece vest had become the new finance-sector bro-wear actually had me wearing my old fleece vest not just under a shell, but more or less in the privacy of my own home.
Okay, that was also driven by the fact that the outdoor industry had brought us Merino wool and that I could afford a certain amount of it, thanks largely to being old enough to have put a certain amount of my income in the hands of, if not Wall Street bros, local banks. And I’ve even started wearing my fleece vest again, because if I had originally started wearing vests because I didn’t care what other people thought about how I looked, I might as well finish up that way.
DonLee2 about 5 years ago
Why would happy individualist Frazz give a dead rat’s left buttock whether something he likes (I assume he likes his fleece vest) is identified with its appropriators (aw geeze, I’m talking DIY psychobabble.)
childe_of_pan about 5 years ago
I used to, every few years or so, wear a suit and tie to work on Halloween. When wear a suit I always feel like it’s obvious I’m faking it. Reactions came in 3 types: 1) “What are you all dressed up for?” 2) “Is that your costume?” 3) (from the ones who got it): point and snurk.